Year of Decisions For Library System

(January 08 2008) - First things first. As I write this column on December 27, news is breaking that a new child has entered the world. I have been turned into a Grampa, thanks to my daughter-in-law, Laura, and my son, Chris. Madelaine Jean Kelly Pickersgill clocked in at 7 pounds 1 ounce at 4 o’clock in the afternoon. She’s a beauty. Now back to the regularly scheduled programming.

People love libraries. Guelph people love Guelph’s library. By the end of November, we had borrowed just over 1.5 million items, up from 1.3 million in the previous year. That’s almost a book and a half a month for every man, woman and child in the city. The Guelph Public Library is, without a doubt, the most widely embraced public institution in town.

In three ways – a new east side branch, a 125th birthday party, and decisions about the Baker St. parking lot - this coming year is very important for the continuing growth of the library. The intention was to open the new branch in 2008 somewhere in the Grange, Starwood and Watson area. The families who want to use it have moved in already. Residential development is going up at a furious pace. Commercial development is lagging behind as we continue to suffer the ill-effects of the Wal-Mart invasion. Allowing it to locate on the northern edge of the city was a short sighted planning decision that’s having long term consequences on the eastern edge. Sooner or later commercial plans, and the opportunity to locate a branch library, will become clearer.

Let’s hope it happens this year. It will add to the library’s 125th anniversary celebration. Several events throughout the year will involve the public in the celebrations. It would be fitting if a ground breaking ceremony was one of them.

The third area of opportunity this year lies in the development of the new downtown main branch. We know it will be built on the Baker St. parking lot. It could be part of a multi-use complex which will include a parking garage and a commercial-retail-residential component. What we don’t know is how closely integrated the three parts will be, and who will own what. Two weeks ago, the mayor was quoted in this paper saying the city is willing to consider leasing space for the library in a privately developed and owned building. Now that she has brought this into the open, we should have a good debate about it.

Farbridge said leasing space would “remove a logjam” from the city’s capital budget. From a financial point of view, this might be true. Privatization is a siren song that too often brings politicians under its spell. Cash starved governments hope someone with deep pockets will step forward and relieve them of some of their burdens. It is usually a mistake. Every time it happens, our civil commons gets smaller.

If Guelph gives up ownership of its main library building, it will set a precedent. We will become the first and only city in Canada to have our library housed entirely in leased quarters. That is not the cutting edge we want to be on. It will take us back a hundred years. At the beginning of the last century Andrew Carnegie gave the Guelph Public Library Board $20,000 to build a library building. The city sold the land at the corner of Norfolk and Paisley to the Library Board for a dollar. Prior to that, the library owned its collection of books, but leased the rooms that contained them. Since 1905, it has owned its collection, its land and its building.

Leasing space for the library’s branches makes sense. They should be somewhat flexible in case they need to move as population density shifts. A main branch library is not. It is the rock that holds the rest of the system in place. A building designed to hold a vast collection of books does not lend itself easily to other uses. Whenever and wherever it is built, the library will occupy that space for another fifty years or more.

A decision about owning or leasing it will be made soon. We have to get it right. Do we want to see a cherished public institution reduced to being a tenant in the private sector? That is a heart breaking proposition.

By the time little Madelaine turns 50, her library shouldn’t still be living in rented rooms.